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JOHN   FISKE 


JOHN  FISKE 


READ    AT   THE    MEMORIAL    SERVICE    AT   ALL-SOULS' 
CHURCH 

REV.  JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES,  PASTOR 
CHICAGO,  JUNE  i,  1902 


Bv  , 

FRANKLIN   H.  HEAD 


CHICAGO 
PRIVA  TEL  Y  PRINTED 


d)t  lafetzftit  $»8« 

R.  R.  DONNELLEY  &  SONS  COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


JOHN  FISKE 

I  first  met  Dr.  John  Fiske  in  1888.  He  had 
been  giving  a  course  of  lectures  in  St.  Louis, 
and  stopped  in  Chicago  for  a  day,  sending  me 
a  note  of  introduction  from  a  mutual  friend  in 
St.  Louis.  I  called  upon  him  at  the  Palmer 
House,  took  him  home  to  dinner,  and  thus 
commenced  an  acquaintance  and  a  friendship 
which  was  only  terminated  by  his  untimely 
death.  For  ten  or  eleven  years  after  this  visit 
he  came  annually  to  Chicago,  remaining  for 
four  or  five  weeks  at  my  house,  while  lectur- 
ing here  and  in  the  neighboring  towns.  He 
never  seemed  to  take  a  trunk  when  on  his 
travels,  but  would  arrive  at  the  house  in  a  cab 
loaded  inside  and  outside  with  big  grip-sacks 
and  dress-suit  cases,  eight  or  ten  in  number, 
and  mostly  full  of  music  books  and  books  of 
reference  to  use  at  his  leisure  hours  in  his  his- 
torical work.  When  not  lecturing  or  other- 


4 


6 

wise  engaged,  he  usually  wrote  for  several 
hours  each  day;  and  many  chapters  of  all  his 
historical  works,  except  the  first  and  the  last 
volumes,  were  written  at  my  house.  To  his 
friends  he  was  most  lovable;  was  genial,  com- 
panionable, childlike  in  simplicity,  and  pro- 
foundly wise.  To  his  friends  life  will  be  for- 
ever shadowed  by  his  loss.  They  will  miss 

"  The  sound  of  a  voice 

Tender  and  sweet  and  low 
That  made  the  earth  rejoice 
A  year  ago." 

For  many  years  before  meeting  Dr.  Fiske,  I 
had  read  with  eager  interest  his  writings  in 
elucidation  of  the  then  New  Philosophy  of 
evolution,  the  universal  reign  of  law.  Through 
him,  as  was  the  case  with  thousands  of  others, 
I  was  first  introduced  to  the  studies  of  Darwin, 
Huxley,  Spencer,  Wallace,  and  the  other  great 
leaders  of  modern  thought,  among  whom  he 
won  an  honored  place.  When  I  met  him  he 
had  just  published  his  first  historical  book, 
"The  Critical  Period  of  American  History." 
I  had  known  him  only  as  an  evolutionist,  and 


7 

said  to  him:  "In  your  last  book,  are  you  not 
getting  out  of  your  proper  field?"  "O,  no," 
he  replied,  "I  am  just  getting  into  it."  He 
then  proceeded  to  explain  that  several  years 
before  he  had  planned  to  write  a  history  of 
the  several  separate  English  colonies  in 
America,  from  the  time  of  the  settlement  of 
each  to  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 
when  for  the  first  time  they  were  organized 
as  a  nation;  that  when  commencing  this 
work  he  had  at  the  same  time  become  inter- 
ested in  the  New  Philosophy,  and  soon  real- 
ized that  thenceforward  no  history  could  be 
written  except  from  the  standpoint  of  an 
evolutionist;  that  he  had  read  what  had  been 
published  on  the  subject,  and  then  visited 
England,  made  the  acquaintance  of  Darwin, 
Huxley,  Spencer,  and  Wallace,  and  spent  a 
year  going  over  with  them  the  scope  of  the 
new  science,  its  victories  achieved,  and  the 
new  worlds  it  must  conquer  in  the  fullness  of 
time.  Then  returning  home,  he  wrote,  pub- 
lished, and  lectured  for  several  years  as  to  the 
new  science,  and  thus  fitted  himself  for  a 


8 

writer  of  history,  who  must  formulate  the  laws 
by  which  nations  develop;  must  show  how 
national  characteristics  are  formed,  partly 
trom  inheritance  and  partly  from  the  influence 
of  environment.  As  to  the  American  colonies, 
he  must  show  how  their  inherited  tendencies, 
in  a  new  land  without  traditions  and  with 
abundant  room  for  expansion,  had  developed 
a  distinct  nationality,  conserving  most  that 
was  good  in  their  ancestral  peoples,  to  whom 
their  indebtedness  was  vast,  but  better  adapted 
for  their  environment  than  aught  that  had 
existed  before. 

Dr.  Fiske  was  graduated  from  Harvard 
when  twenty-one  years  of  age.  When  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age  he  was  appointed  Univer- 
sity Lecturer  on  Philosophy.  For  several 
years  thereafter  he  had  charge  of  the  monthly 
review  of  scientific  progress  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly;  was  appointed  in  1870  Assistant 
Librarian  at  Harvard,  and  while  thus  engaged 
wrote  an  article  on  the  work  of  librarians, 
which  is  now  the  guide  for  the  best  trained 
librarians  in  their  duties.  To  1874,  when 


9 

thirty-four  years  of  age,  he  wrote  and  lectured 
in  the  principal  cities  of  the  country  on  the 
New  Philosophy,  and  the  work  of  Herbert 
Spencer,  its  greatest  expositor;  and  in  1874 
he  published  his  "Outlines  of  Cosmic  Phil- 
osophy," which  contained  the  substance  of 
his  various  lectures,  which  was  widely  read, 
and  which  is  as  yet  the  most  lucid  and  popular 
exposition  of  the  theories  of  evolution. 

To  the  time  when  he  was  forty  years  of  age 
he  gave  his  time  and  efforts  largely  to  the  ex- 
position of  the  New  Philosophy,  and  to  the 
study  of  the  method  of  the  amalgamation  of 
its  principles  with  historical  work,  after  which 
he  felt  himself  able  to  commence,  what  had 
been  the  hope  of  his  life,  the  writing  of  Ameri- 
can History  from  the  standpoint  of  an  evolu- 
tionist. His  two  volumes  on  the  Discovery  of 
America,  a  magnificent  prose  epic,  than  which 
there  are  few  greater  narratives  in  our  lan- 
guage, and  the  two  volumes  of  the  History  of 
the  Revolutionary  War,  marked  the  limits  of 
the  field  he  had  sought  to  cover.  Within  this 

period  he  aimed  to  write  the  history  of  each 

' 


10 

of  the  colonies.  At  the  time  of  his  death  this 
plan  was  completed,  except  the  last  work  of 
the  series,  New  England  and  New  France ;  and 
when  I  saw  him  in  April,  1901,  he  told  me  that 
two  months'  work  would  complete  these  vol- 
umes. This  last  work  of  his  original  plan  did 
not  receive  his  finishing  touches,  but  was 
sufficiently  far  along  so  that  it  will  be  pub- 
lished during  the  coming  year.  After  com- 
pleting this  book  he  planned  to  spend  a  few 
months  in  England,  where  he  wished  to  have 
a  last  visit  with  Herbert  Spencer;  on  his  re- 
turn he  expected  to  begin  a  new  history  of  the 
nation  from  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary 
War  to  the  election  of  McKinley.  He  told 
me  something  of  his  plan  for  this  work — a 
plan  so  broad,  so  philosophical,  and  in  certain 
lines  so  new,  as  to  indicate  that  his  death 
before  the  doing  of  it  was  a  national  calamity. 
The  stories  of  the  precocious  boyhood  of 
Fiske  rival  those  told  of  Macaulay  or  John 
Stuart  Mill.  At  seven  years  of  age  he  was 
reading  Caesar's  Commentaries;  at  nine  he 
had  read  all  the  great  English  authors;  at 


II 


thirteen  all  the  principal  Latin  ones;  before 
entering  Harvard  at  seventeen  he  had  mas- 
tered Greek,  Latin,  German,  and  the  Romance 
languages,  was  familiar  with  the  best  litera- 
ture of  these  several  tongues,  and  had  a  con- 
siderable knowledge  of  Hebrew  and  Sanscrit. 
He  had  a  marvellous  facility  in  acquiring  lan- 
guages, and  during  his  college  course  he  mas- 
tered half  a  dozen  more  of  the  modern  tongues; 
was  a  brilliant  scholar  in  the  requirements  of 
the  college  curriculum,  and  had  read  widely  in 
science,  philosophy,  and  history.  His  mem- 
ory was  equally  phenomenal ;  he  never  seemed 
to  forget  anything  he  had  ever  heard  or  read, 
and  all  this  vast  accumulation  of  facts  and 
fancies  seemed  to  be  arranged  and  classified 
and  subject  to  instantaneous  call.  One  even- 
ing at  my  house  something  was  said  about  Sam 
Weller,  and  the  conversation  drifted  to  the 
Pickwick  Papers.  Mr.  Fiske  began  to  repeat, 
verbatim,  long  extracts  therefrom.  He  gave 
the  whole  of  the  trial  of  Bardell  vs.  Pickwick — 
the  examination  of  Sam  Weller  and  of  Mr. 
Winkle ;  the  speech  of  Sergeant  Buzfuz.  Then 


12 

Ben  Allen  and  Bob  Sawyer,  Miss  Sally  Brass, 
Dick  Swiveller  and  the  Marchioness,  and  others 
of  the  characters  in  the  Dickens  stories  were 
brought  in,  and  Dr.  Fiske  would  repeat  pages 
and  pages  relative  to  these  fascinating  people. 
He  said  that  he  was  delighted  with  these 
stories  as  they  were  first  printed,  and  did  not 
recall  ever  reading  them  since,  but  he  re- 
peated, verbatim,  passages  pages  long  which 
he  had  read  thirty  or  forty  years  before. 

Mr.  Fiske  had  the  faculty  of  rapid  reading 
ascribed  to  Macaulay ;  he  seemed  to  absorb  a 
full  page  at  a  glance  as  an  ordinary  reader 
would  a  line.  I  recollect  an  instance  in  point. 
Soon  after  the  death  of  Dr.  David  Swing  I  had 
supervised  the  publication  of  two  volumes  of 
his  unpublished  essays.  Dr.  Fiske  and  Swing 
were  warm  friends,  and  many  were  the  de- 
lightful Sunday  afternoons  they  had  passed 
together  at  my  house.  One  day  after  dinner, 
Fiske  asked  for  the  two  volumes  and  turned 
over  leaf  after  leaf  in  each  until  he  had  gone 
through  the  two  volumes — four  hundred  pages 
in  an  hour.  He  spoke  of  how  he  had  enjoyed 


the  reading,  and  how  the  various  papers  re- 
flected the  broad  scholarship  and  sound  phil- 
osophy of  the  great  teacher.  But  a  short  time 
before  I  had  read  the  contents  of  the  volumes 
three  times  with  great  care,  once  in  manu- 
script, and  twice  in  revising  the  proof-sheets. 
It  did  not  seem  to  me  possible  that  he  could 
know  much  about  the  essays,  and  I  began  to 
ask  questions,  with  the  result  that  I  saw  that 
not  a  point  in  the  two  volumes  had  escaped 
him;  he  was  actually  more  familiar  than  I 
with  every  subject  discussed  in  the  books. 

With  all  his  vast  accumulation  in  every  de- 
partment of  human  knowledge,  he  had  the 
faculty  of  clear  statement,  to  which  clear 
thinking  is  a  prerequisite.  Darwin,  after 
reading  the  Cosmic  Philosophy,  wrote  to  Dr. 
Fiske:  "I  never  in  my  life  read  so  lucid  an 
expositor  —  and  therefore  thinker  —  as  you 
are";  and  Herbert  Spencer  said  substantially 
the  same  thing.  It  was  this  gift  of  a  brilliant 
mind,  formulating  its  thoughts  in  transparent 
language  of  absolute  precision,  which  espe- 
cially fitted  him  for  making  understood  by  a 


wide  general  public  the  facts  and  formulas  of 
evolution,  which  before  that  time  had  been 
scarcely  understood  outside  the  ranks  of 
specialists. 

The  first  publication  of  Dr.  Fiske's,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  was  an  article  in 
the  National  Quarterly  Review,  published  when 
he  was  nineteen  years  old,  and  in  his  Sopho- 
more year  at  Harvard,  entitled  "Fallacies  in 
Buckle's  History  of  Civilization. "  The  article 
is  a  marvel  of  learning,  clearness  of  state- 
ment, and  eloquence  for  a  man  of  any  age. 
He  does  full  justice  to  the  work  which  was  an 
epoch-making  treatise.  He  says  of  it  that  in 
breadth  of  views,  in  the  candor  with  which 
they  are  stated,  in  wealth  of  erudition,  and 
the  honesty  with  which  he  applies  his  facts,  in 
the  love  of  liberty  which  pervades  his  work, 
and  the  eloquence  which  invests  all  parts  with 
an  undying  charm,  he  has  few  equals  in  any 
age.  In  Fiske's  review  he  takes  up  and  dis- 
cusses the  four  great  laws  which  Buckle,  in 
his  three  volumes,  lays  down  as  the  basis  for 
his  history  of  civilization. 


Of  these  laws  he  says  the  first  is,  that  social 
changes  conform  to  fixed  laws.  This  is  true, 
but  not  new.  Many  writers  have  given  vague 
glimpses  of  its  coming.  Voltaire  almost  for- 
mulated it,  and  Auguste  Comte  established  it 
by  absolute  proof. 

The  second  law  defined  the  relative  value 
of  intelligence  and  morality  in  the  progress  of 
civilization.  Fiske  shows  as  to  this,  that  as 
formulated  by  Buckle,  it  is  in  conflict  with  the 
first  law ;  is  contradictory  in  its  different  parts, 
and  is  throughout  confused  and  vague,  show- 
ing that  Buckle  had  not  a  clear  idea  of  what 
he  sought  to  prove. 

The  third  law  was,  that  permanent  scepti- 
cism was  the  greatest  of  factors  in  progress. 
This  is  partly  true  and  partly  untrue.  When 
scepticism  means  a  condition  of  doubt  until 
proof  be  established  of  the  truth  of  a  theory  it 
is  true,  but  when  proof  is  made,  doubt  is  a 
drawback,  and  the  law  is  untrue. 

The  fourth  law  defined  the  difference  in 
results  between  the  deductive  and  inductive 
methods  of  reasoning,  and  was  illustrated 


i6 

with  marvelous  skill  from  the  histories  of 
England,  Scotland,  and  Spain.  The  reviewer 
pointed  out  certain  errors,  but  as  a  whole  said 
that  the  discussion  showed  a  depth  of  thought 
and  an  extent  in  learning  unsurpassed  in  his- 
toric literature.  Fiske's  review  as  the  work 
of  a  boy  of  nineteen  seems  to  me  unparalleled 
in  learning,  clearness  of  statement,  and  ma- 
turity of  judgment — a  worthy  review  of  a  great 
work. 

For  several  years  after  his  graduation  Dr. 
Fiske  published  much  of  his  work  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  outside  his  Cosmic  Philos- 
ophy and  purely  scientific  papers.  His  first 
publication  in  this  periodical  was  a  review  of 
Edward  L.  You-mans's  class-book  of  chemistry. 
He  was  then  twenty-two  years  old  and  a  stu- 
dent at  the  Harvard  Law  School.  The  article 
is  most  remarkable  for  so  young  a  man.  It 
embodies  the  most  important  qualities  of  his 
maturer  years.  Its  style  is  at  once  striking 
and  simple;  it  shows  vast  reading  in  all  fields 
of  research,  and  surveys  the  subject  from  a 
lofty  and  comprehensive  standpoint.  It  is 


almost  unstinted  in  its  praise  of  the  volume, 
but  indignant  at  one  point,  in  which  he  claims 
Dr.  Youmans  is  unscientific;  his  use  of  the 
ever  vague  and  unsatifactory  term  ether.  The 
book  of  Youmans  was  when  issued  the  most 
in  accord  with  modern  science  of  anything 
before  then  published.  It  banished  the  words 
caloric,  phlogiston,  or  fire  as  elements — forms 
of  matter — and  placed  them  instead  with 
sound  and  light  as  modes  of  motion.  It  illus- 
trated the  motion  of  all  forms  of  matter  in  its 
ultimate  atoms  as  its  normal  state,  and  argued 
that  the  balance  determined  the  existence  of 
matter,  and  that  what  could  not  be  weighed 
was  not  matter.  Fiske's  wide  reading  and 
study  is  illustrated  when  in  referring  to  this 
point  he  quotes  in  its  support  from  Goethe's 
mystic  poem  of  Faust.  He  says:  "The  won- 
drous phenomena  of  light,  heat,  and  electri- 
city are  now  seen  to  be  due  to  the  rythmetrical 
vibration  of  atoms.  There  is  thus  no  such 
thing  as  rest;  from  the  planet  to  the  ultimate 
particle  all  things  are  endlessly  moving,  and 
the  mystic  song  of  the  Earth  Spirit  in  Faust 


i8 

is  recognized  as  the  sublimest  truth  of  science. 
The  spirit  says: 

" '  In  the  current  of  life,  in  the  tempest  of  motion, 
In  the  fervour  of  act — in  the  fire — in  the  storm, 

Hither  and  thither, 

Over  and  under, 

Wend  I  and  wander. 

Birth  and  the  grave 

Limitless  ocean, 

Where  the  restless  wave 

Undulates  ever, 

Under  and  over 

Their  ceaseless  strife, 

Heaving  and  weaving 

The  changes  of  life, 
At  the  whirring  loom  of  Time  unawed 
I  work  the  living  mantle  of  God.'" 

(Translated  by  J.  Auster.) 

John  Fiske  was  married  when  twenty-two 
years  of  age  to  Miss  Abby  Brooks,  of  Peter- 
sham, Massachusetts.  The  marriage  was  a 
happy  one.  His  home  life  was  always  most 
satisfying  and  beautiful.  Her  brother,  James 
Brooks,  a  business  man  of  Boston,  had  a  beau- 
tiful home  in  Petersham  which  had  been  in  the 


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family  for  some  generations.  Dr.  Fiske  and 
his  family  were  from  the  time  of  his  marriage 
frequent  visitors  to  this  family  home.  I  once, 
on  the  invitation  of  Mr.  James  Brooks,  accom- 
panied Professor  and  Mrs.  Fiske  to  spend  Sun- 
day at  this  home.  While  there,  driving  with 
Dr.  Fiske,  he  became  in  a  reminiscent  mood, 
and  asked  if  he  had  ever  told  me  the  story  of 
his  marriage,  which  he  then  proceeded  to  do. 
He  said  that  just  after  his  graduation  and 
while  a  student  at  the  Harvard  Law  School, 
he  was  one  evening  a  guest  at  a  reception  in 
Cambridge  where  he  met  Miss  Abby  Brooks. 
He  was  greatly  attracted,  and  had  as  many 
chats  with  her  during  the  evening  as  circum- 
stances allowed,  and  on  his  return  to  his  room 
that  night  told  his  chum  that  he  had  seen  the 
woman  whom  he  intended  to  marry.  He  noted, 
however,  that  sundry  other  young  men  beside 
himself  had  seemed  attracted  by  Miss  Brooks; 
and  finding  that  she  had  returned  to  Petersham, 
decided  that  it  would  be  wise  to  follow  up  his 
acquaintance  lest  she  forget,  lest  she  forget. 
He  accordingly,  not  having  any  ready  money 


20 

in  hand,  borrowed  five  dollars  from  the  woman 
with  whom  he  boarded,  and  started  for  Peter- 
sham. On  reaching  there  he  again  realized 
the  importance  of  time  in  his  campaign,  as  he 
found  other  young  men  of  that  neighborhood 
who  were  fully  aware  of  the  attractiveness  of 
Miss  Abby.  At  the  end  of  two  days  he  real- 
ized that  the  treasury  was  substantially  empty, 
and  feeling  it  unsafe  to  leave  the  campaign 
but  begun,  he  wrote  to  his  landlady  for  an 
additional  loan  of  ten  dollars,  which  she 
kindly  forwarded  him.  He  plied  his  suit  with 
great  diligence  until  the  ten  dollars  was  nearly 
exhausted.  By  this  time  he  had  learned  that 
Miss  Abby  would,  within  a  very  short  time, 
start  for  a  visit  to  friends  in  Ohio  and  Chi- 
cago, to  be  absent  for  nearly  a  year.  Matters 
had  progressed  so  well  that  he  was  enabled 
to  arrange  for  a  correspondence  during  her 
absence.  He  then  settled  his  hotel  bill  and 
secured  a  ticket  for  as  far  toward  Boston  as 
his  money  would  buy,  and  walked  the  last 
sixty  miles  without  anything  to  eat  but  some 
apples  which  he  lifted  from  orchards  whose 


21 

owners  kept  no  dog.  He  said  that  he  could 
not  remember  whether  in  this  sixty-mile  tramp 
his  feet  touched  the  ground  or  not.  During 
the  year  a  lively  correspondence  was  kept  up, 
and  he  said  that  he  had  never  written  anything 
on  the  subject  of  evolution  or  philosophy  on 
which  he  had  expended  greater  care  than  on 
these  letters.  He  said  that  during  this  cor- 
respondence and  later  he  had  discussed  some- 
what with  his  hoped-for  fiancee  the  teachings 
of  the  New  Philosophy.  When  its  theories 
were  at  first  promulgated,  its  votaries  were 
often  assailed  as  enemies  of  religion,  as  agnos- 
tics or  atheists;  and  Fiske,  not  knowing 
whether  Miss  Brooks  had  heard  such  state- 
ments regarding  him,  decided  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  define  to  her  his  position,  that  she 
might  not  be  shocked  on  learning  it  later. 
He  thereupon  wrote  her  fully,  and  was  de- 
lighted, on  getting  her  reply,  to  find  that  she 
was  not  only  in  full  accord  with  him  as  far  as 
he  had  gone,  but  was  in  some  points  still 
farther  advanced ;  that  her  letter,  as  he  said, 
swept  some  cobwebs  out  of  certain  neglected 


22 

and  dusty  corners  of  his  own  brain.  Shortly 
after  her  return  he  was  able  to  arrange  with 
her  to  accept  the  position  of  the  light  of  his 
life. 

During  Dr.  Fiske's  summers  at  Petersham 
he  was  visited  by  many  famous  and  interesting 
people  who  have  in  many  ways  recorded  their 
delights  at  his  good  comradeship.  Huxley, 
on  one  of  his  visits  to  America,  spent,  with  his 
wife,  a  week  at  Petersham — a  week  full  of 
conversation,  witty,  frolicsome,  and  wise,  with 
drives  to  points  whence  could  be  viewed 
Monadnock  and  Wachusett,  with  picnics  and 
camping-outs  in  the  pine  forests.  Huxley 
wrote  Fiske  from  England  that  nowhere  in 
America  had  he  felt  so  thoroughly  at  home 
and  in  sympathy  with  his  surroundings  as  at 
Petersham — a  week  made  up  wholly  of  red- 
letter  days. 

There  is  but  little  room  for  pure  originality 
in  the  work  of  an  historian.  The  most  of  the 
facts  and  incidents,  the  personality  of  the 
leading  characters,  the  dates  of  the  principal 
events,  are  common  property.  But  from  Dr. 


23 

Fiske's  standpoint  bare  facts  or  a  vast  aggre- 
gation of  isolated  facts  were  almost  worthless 
in  themselves;  their  value  was  developed, 
when  in  the  hand  of  a  master  these  facts  were 
classified — their  relation  to  each  other  shown ; 
and  when  by  the  grouping  in  proper  sequence 
of  these  isolated  facts  would  be  buih  up  a 
systematic  whole,  illustrating  some  great 
epoch  in  a  nation's  life.  To  many  writers  of 
history  all  facts  are  of  equal  value.  From 
Dr.  Fiske's  broad  horizon  little  incidents, 
which  other  writers  magnify,  disappear,  but 
facts  of  real  moment,  even  almost  insignifi- 
cant at  first  view,  are  clothed  with  new  value 
as  parts  of  some  movement,  some  development 
greater  than  themselves.  He  grasped  facts  in 
their  relations.  His  usefulness  as  an  historian 
was  primarily  in  his  power  to  present  to  the 
average  man  the  revelation  of  the  continuity 
and  necessary  sequence  of  the  events  in  the 
national  life ;  of  the  significance  of  the  crises 
which  attended  various  stages  of  development, 
and  that  when  viewed  from  a  sufficiently  broad 
and  lofty  standpoint,  each  crisis  was  inevi- 


24 

table,  had  its  use,  and  taught  its  lesson.  For 
a  mastery  of  his  subject  without  dullness,  for 
lucidity,  charm,  and  enthusiasm  in  his  group- 
ing of  events  and  bringing  them  in  true  rela- 
tion before  his  readers,  we  have  never  known 
his  equal.  Especially  is  this  true  of  his  work 
in  abstruse  philosophical  or  historical  subjects, 
which  he  has  made  luminous  and  transparent 
by  his  intellectual  clarity. 

In  his  work  as  a  writer  on  Evolution,  he  was 
in  great  part  simply  an  expositor — a  teacher 
of  what  had  been  put  in  form  by  Spencer, 
Huxley,  Darwin,  and  Wallace;  but  his  own 
contribution  to  the  New  Philosophy  was  im- 
portant, and  was  repeatedly  recognized  as  of 
great  value  by  his  masters.  This  contribution 
was  the  important  part  in  the  development  of 
the  race  borne  by  the  lengthened  period  of 
infancy  in  the  human  child.  There  came  a 
time  in  the  evolution  of  man  from  a  lower 
type  of  animal  life  when  his  intellect  had 
placed  him  in  advance  of  all  other  types,  and 
where  cunning  and  the  ability  to  use  rude 
weapons  became  of  more  value  than  simple 


25 

physical  strength.  He  was,  for  example,  far 
less  powerful  than  the  gorilla — his  possible 
ancestor.  The  human  child  became  much 
weaker  and  more  helpless  at  birth  than  the 
offspring  of  any  members  of  the  purely  animal 
kingdom.  In  the  case  of  animals,  while  the 
maternal  instinct  is  necessarily  developed  to 
some  extent,  the  paternal  instinct  is  as  a  rule 
not  developed  at  all.  Yet  where  the  newly 
born  offspring  within  a  few  days  is  in  a  large 
measure  able  to  care  for  itself,  this  instinct  is 
but  rudimentary  as  compared  with  the  human 
race,  where  great  care  and  kindness  fora  long 
period  are  indispensable  to  the  preservation  of 
the  species.  This  care  for  the  first  time  calls 
for  the  aid  of  both  parents,  the  mother  no  less 
than  the  child  must  be  cared  for,  and  thus  for 
a  long  period  the  parents  and  the  new-born 
child  are  necessary  to  each  other,  and  thus 
gradually  the  segregation  leading  to  the  fam- 
ily was  evolved — the  lifelong  relations  of 
father  and  mother,  of  husband  and  wife ;  and 
with  this  came  love,  the  human  faculty  which 
is  divine,  and  which  is  the  corner-stone  and 


26 

indispensable  element  in  even  the  rudest  form 
of  civilization.  This  theory — the  contribution 
of  Dr.  Fiske  to  the  new  philosophy — is  of 
great  value,  as  it  is  almost  the  only  humanizing 
element  in  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  Else- 
where the  doctrine  of  selection  and  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  is  constant  and  merciless; 
in  all  forms  of  lower  life,  the  tooth  and  claw 
— pure  physical  prowess — are  the  mighty  fac- 
tors through  all  the  ages.  Everywhere  the 
strong  devour  the  weak.  The  pages  of  this 
history  are  written  in  blood.  Without  this 
prolongation  of  infancy,  the  man  might  have 
become  formidable  among  animals  through 
sheer  force  of  sharp-wittedness.  But  without 
this  mighty  factor  he  might  never  have  com- 
prehended the  meaning  of  such  terms  as  self- 
sacrifice  or  altruistic  devotion.  The  phe- 
nomena of  social  life  would  have  been  omitted 
from  the  history  of  the  world,  and  with  them 
the  phenomena  of  ethics,  of  religion,  and  of 
human  love. 

Upon  the  first  publication  of  the  theory  of 
evolution,  showing  the  vast  age  of  the  world 


27 

and  illustrating  the  methods  of  change  through 
uncounted  ages  to  its  present  state,  it  created 
great  disturbance  among  the  theologians  of  all 
schools,  who  denounced  the  new  doctrines  as 
blasphemous  and  calculated  to  destroy  the 
very  foundations  of  religious  belief.  Vast 
numbers  of  people  felt  that  if  the  world  was 
really  more  than  six  thousand  years  old,  and 
had  been  uncounted  millions  of  years  in  its 
building  instead  of  six  days,  if  the  old  beliefs 
upon  these  points  must  pass  away,  all  the  other 
teachings  of  the  Bible  must  go  also,  and  they 
felt  the  slipping  away  of  all  belief  in  spiritual 
things.  For  a  long  time  this  large  class  of 
people  could  not  realize  that  there  could  be 
but  one  truth — that  it  was  utterly  impossible 
there  should  be  a  conflict  between  scientific 
and  religious  truths,  and  that  with  fuller  in- 
telligence this  seeming  conflict  would  be  ex- 
changed for  an  enduring  and  mutually  bene- 
ficial alliance. 

To  bring  about  this  alliance  no  writer  has 
done  more  than  Dr.  Fiske.  He  was  essen- 
tially a  man  of  a  most  reverent  nature  and 


28 

imagination.  His  writings  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  New  Philosophy  took  on  with  pass- 
ing years  a  note  of  higher  spirituality.  His 
three  small  volumes,  "The  Descent  of  Man," 
"The  Idea  of  God,"  and  "Through  Nature  to 
God,"  have  had  a  wide  circulation,  and  no 
stronger  argument  has  ever  been  made  upon 
the  greatest  of  all  questions — the  question  of 
a  life  beyond  life — than  is  set  forth  in  these 
small  volumes.  The  human  soul  is  the  high- 
est creative  effort  of  the  Supreme  Power 
which  governs  all  worlds;  and  as  chemistry 
has  demonstrated  that  no  form  of  matter  ever 
perishes,  but  may  undergo  great  changes,  can 
it  be  supposed  that  the  result  of  the  sublimest 
of  all  creative  efforts  is  the  only  thing  which 
does  perish?  This  statement  from  analogy  is 
ingenious,  but  not  conclusive.  Dr.  Fiske  con- 
cedes that  we  have  absolutely  no  evidence  of 
a  future  life.  No  soul  has  ever  returned 
across  the  border  with  tidings  of  a  paradise. 
But  a  presumption  is  raised  from  the  fact  that 
every  nation,  even  the  lowest  tribes,  has  a 
belief  in  a  future  state,  and  the  universality  of 


this  beief,  which  seems  inborn,  cannot  be  dis- 
regarded. Again  Dr.  Fiske  argues  that  it  is 
impossible  for  us  ever  to  have  any  evidence  of 
a  life  apart  from  some  form  of  matter,  and 
that  we  should  not  look  for  or  expect  such 
evidence ;  that  the  fact  that  no  such  proof  was 
forthcoming  does  not  at  all  militate  against 
the  existence  of  a  future  life.  All  our  experi- 
ences are  in  connection  with  material  things, 
and  the  human  mind  cannot  apprehend  any- 
thing outside  the  range  of  possible  experi- 
ences. If  the  soul  survives  the  body,  then, 
and  then  alone,  can  it  recognize  spiritual 
things. 

There  was  much  genial  banter  in  this  field 
between  Dr.  Fiske  and  his  long-time  friend 
Huxley.  Huxley  was  known  and  called  him- 
self an  agnostic.  His  belief,  as  stated  by 
himself  in  a  few  words,  was  that  it  is  practi- 
cally beyond  the  power  of  science  to  adduce 
any  evidence  in  support  of  the  soul's  survival 
of  the  body,  since  the  whole  question  lies  out- 
side the  bound  of  our  terrestrial  experiences. 
Despite  this,  Fiske  used  to  quote  with  delight 


3° 

and  full  approval  the  words  of  Mr.  MacMillan 
about  his  friend,  "That  there  was  so  much  real 
Christianity  in  Huxley  that  if  it  were  parceled 
out  among  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  British 
Isles,  there  would  be  enough  to  save  the  souls 
of  all,  with  plenty  to  spare  for  the  adjoining 
peoples."  He  also  used  to  quote  with  em- 
phatic indorsement  Huxley's  saying  that 
whatever  mistakes  he  had  made,  he  had  never 
bent  the  knee  to  those  unutterable  humbugs, 
Benjamin  Disraeli  and  Louis  Napoleon.  It 
seemed  to  me,  however,  that  Dr.  Fiske  had  a 
sort  of  sneaking  bohemian  admiration  for  the 
two  men  who  had  fooled  so  many  people  for 
so  long  a  time.  Fiske  used  to  tell  of  Huxley's 
first  visit  to  his  home,  which  occurred  at  once 
after  his  landing  in  America.  He  had  heard 
from  his  American  friends  of  various  eatable 
luxuries  not  to  be  found  among  the  effete 
peoples  of  the  Old  World,  and  was  evidently 
watching  for  their  appearance.  At  dinner  a 
plate  of  what  our  housewives  call  hot  raised 
biscuits  was  passed.  Huxley  took  one,  looked 
it  over  carefully,  and  then  asked,  "Is  this  a 


buckwheat  cake?"  Mr.  Fiske's  comment  on 
this  being  that  even  a  great  mind  was  helpless 
before  a  proposition  involving  two  unknown 
quantities. 

Dr.  Fiske's  optimism  in  spiritual  things  and 
his  cheerful  serenity  in  the  presence  of  these 
sublimest  of  problems,  which  he  had  stated 
with  great  and  penetrating  power,  have  been 
of  vast  benefit  to  his  age.  Many  clergymen, 
as  well  as  hosts  of  his  great  audience,  have 
borne  testimony  to  his  saving  their  belief  in 
spiritual  things,  when  all  the  supposed  founda- 
tions seemed  to  be  slipping  away.  He  had 
the  fine  enthusiasm  of  the  prophetic  soul. 

Dr.  Fiske,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was  un- 
questionably our  first  man  of  letters.  Outside 
his  work  in  his  two  special  lines,  he  wrote 
numerous  articles  for  the  Atlantic  Monthly, 
largely  upon  current  events,  all  of  which 
showed  wide  intelligence  and  research.  A 
recent  article,  entitled  "Forty  Years  of  the 
Shakespeare-Bacon  Folly,"  was  a  delightful 
demolition  of  that  most  idiotic  fallacy.  For 
Dr.  Fiske  to  attack  such  a  collection  of  noth- 


32 

ingness  is  something  like  taking  a  modern 
fifteen-inch  gun  with  which  to  cannonade  a 
grasshopper;  but  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
not  a  solitary  human  being  entitled  to  be  con- 
sidered a  Shakespearian  scholar  has  ever 
attached  a  feather's  weight  to  the  Baconian 
nonsense,  sundry  people — poseurs — like  to 
make  themselves  conspicuous  by  claims  of 
seeing  that  which  cannot  be  seen. 

In  summing  up  the  literary  work  of  Dr. 
Fiske,  we  may  say  that  in  his  exposition  of 
evolution  he  did  more  than  any  other  man  to 
popularize  the  New  Philosophy,  the  working- 
out  of  which  system,  more  than  perhaps  aught 
else,  will  make  his  century  illustrious,  and 
that  his  own  contribution  did  more  to  human- 
ize it  and  show  its  gentler  and  kindlier  aspects 
than  the  work  of  any  other  writer. 

That  in  history  he  had  the  grasp  of  thought 
and  grace  of  manner  of  Parkman,  and  saw  a 
broader  horizon  and  possessed  a  philosophic 
and  wider  range  of  essential  knowledge  than 
even  that  gifted  writer;  that  he  pictured  in 
style  of  noblest  prose  the  struggle  and  devel- 


33 

opment  of  the  nation  before  the  people  in  a 
far  clearer  light  than  had  been  done  by  others; 
and  that  this  cheerful  optimist  left  every 
reader  prouder  of  his  country  and  its  people, 
and  more  hopeful  of  the  future  than  ever 
before.  His  exposition  of  history  and  of 
human  life  was  cheerful  and  luminous  in  its 
perpetual  serenity. 

Outside  his  marvelous  ability  and  rare  schol- 
arship, to  those  who  knew  him  well,  the  per- 
sonality of  the  man  was  the  greatest  factor  of 
all.  He  was  a  man  of  abounding  vitality  and 
exhaustless  good  will  toward  all  of  his  fellows 
and  the  whole  of  life.  He  partook  with  zest 
of  all  the  good  things  of  this  world — poetry, 
music,  'the  drama,  and  the  society  of  his 
friends,  to  whom  he  was  a  perpetual  delight. 
He  was  a  master  of  the  technique  of  music,  a 
good  pianist,  and  an  interesting  and  appreci- 
ative singer.  In  his  later  years  his  corpulence 
had  somewhat  affected  his  voice,  and  I  recol- 
lect that  at  a  reception  at  my  house  when  he 
had  sung  the  "Two  Grenadiers,"  "Sylvia," 
and  other  favorites,  our  old-time  comrade, 


34 

James  S.  Norton,  said  to  me  as  he  was  leav- 
ing the  room:  "I  have  greatly  enjoyed  the 
music.  Fiske  sings  like  a  philosopher!" 

Howells  says  of  him:  "One  of  the  kindest 
hearts  in  the  world  looked  out  of  his  spec- 
tacled eyes.  At  Cambridge  his  social  and 
intellectual  environment  was  as  congenial  as 
a  man  of  his  temperament  could  have,  and  he 
felt  to  the  uttermost  the  inexpressible  com- 
fort of  it."  He  was  a  universal  favorite 
among  his  neighbors,  who  relate  various 
quaint  stories  showing  his  childlike  simpli- 
city, with  its  touch  of  the  atmosphere  of  Bo- 
hemia. Mrs.  Fiske  had  a  brother,  James 
Brooks,  a  prosperous  business  man  of  Boston, 
a  bachelor,  and  very  fond  of  Mrs.  Fiske  and 
the  family,  whom  he  would  occasionally  visit 
for  a  few  days.  As  the  story  is  told,  one 
morning  as  Fiske  was  walking  from  his  house 
to  the  Harvard  Library  he  met  a  friend  who 
said,  presently:  "Why,  Fiske,  you  look 
bunged  up.  You  don't  look  as  if  you  had 
slept  at  all  last  night."  Replied  Fiske:  "I 
did  not  sleep  well  at  all.  Jim  Brooks  kept 


35 

me  awake  more  than  three  hours,  walking  up 
and  down  with  the  baby!"  Fiske's  baby,  of 
course! 

Another  of  the  neighborhood  stories  was 
when  Mrs.  Fiske  found,  to  her  horror,  that 
the  children  had  learned  the  use  of  various 
profane  words  while  playing  in  the  streets. 
Said  Mrs.  Fiske:  "John,  it's  perfectly  dread- 
ful how  our  children  are  learning  to  swear. 
Yesterday  Maud  said  to  me,  'Mamma,  I  think 
Cousin  Mary  is  a  fool  and  Cousin  Kate  a 
damned  fool!'  "  "Well,"  said  the  Professor, 
after  a  moment's  reflection,  "don't  you  think, 
Abby,  that  the  child  made  a  very  accurate 
distinction  as  to  the  relative  intellectual  facul- 
ties of  the  two  girls?" 

Dr.  Fiske  lectured  at  the  State  University 
of  Missouri  for  many  years.  The  president 
was  a  great  admirer  of  Dr.  Fiske,  and  one 
day,  when  talking  with  a  student,  said  to 
him:  "I  suppose  of  course  you  are  attending 
the  lectures  of  Professor  Fiske."  "No,"  said 
the  boy,  "I  don't  think  much  of  Fiske." 
Said  the  president:  "You  ought  not  to  miss 


36 

one  of  his  lectures.  It  is  the  opportunity  of 
your  life."  Said  the  boy:  "I  don't  admire 
Fiske.  I  think  his  writings  are  superficial." 
"What,"  said  the  president,  "John  Fiske 
superficial!  You  might  as  well  say  that  he 
was  emaciated!" 

Dr.  Fiske's  robust  figure  encompassed  a 
magnetic  and  jovial  soul.  His  life  was  one 
of  industrious  and  noble  contentment.  Each 
passing  hour  brought  to  him  its  delights.  It 
might  be  said  of  him  as  was  said  of  Darwin, 
that  he  was  one  whom  the  gods,  for  love  of 
him,  had  endowed  with  perpetual  youth,  so 
that  his  death  could  never  seem  other  than 
premature.  His  sudden  death  had  in  it  an 
element  of  tragedy. 

He  had  a  pleasant  home  in  Cambridge, 
which  had  been  built  for  him  by  Mr.  Stough- 
ton,  his  mother's  second  husband.  His 
mother,  again  a  widow,  lived  in  a  large  and 
beautiful  home,  built  by  Richardson,  the  great 
architect,  and  one  of  his  most  successful 
houses.  Fiske's  house  was  roomy  and  com- 
fortable in  all  ways  except  in  its  library  accom- 


37 

modations.  He  had  a  library  of  some  ten 
thousand  volumes,  selected  with  reference  to 
his  literary  work,  which  had  greatly  outgrown 
the  room  provided  for  it.  The  ceilings  were 
high,  the  bookcases  reached  to  the  ceilings, 
and  the  shelves  usually  had  a  double  row  of 
books,  one  behind  the  other,  making  them 
inconvenient  of  access.  For  years  he  had 
been  planning  to  build  an  addition  to  the  li- 
brary room,  but  could  not  study  out  a  plan  to 
add  it  to  the  house  without  spoiling  the  sym- 
metry of  the  building.  Something  over  a 
year  ago  Mrs.  Stoughton  proposed  that  Mr. 
Fiske  should  give  up  his  house,  and  with  his 
family  come  to  live  in  her  house,  which  had 
abundant  room  for  all,  and  the  plan  was  de- 
cided. Some  changes  were  to  be  made  in  the 
house,  among  others  Fiske  was  to  have  his 
ideal  room  for  his  library.  In  April,  1901,  I 
spent  an  afternoon  with  Dr.  Fiske,  and  one  of 
the  first  things  he  proposed  was  a  walk  to  his 
mother's  house  to  see  his  new  workroom. 
We  visited  it.  The  carpenters  and  other 
workmen  were  everywhere  at  work,  but  the 


38 

new  library  room  was  substantially  finished — 
a  beautiful  room  thirty  by  fifty  feet,  with  a 
big  fireplace  in  the  middle  of  one  side,  and 
the  entire  wall  space  of  the  room,  except  the 
door  and  windows,  covered  with  book-shelves. 
His  delight  was  almost  boyish  as  he  talked 
of  his  enjoyment  when  domiciled  in  his  new 
workshop  with  all  his  books  in  easy  reach. 
Then  he  was  full,  too,  of  the  idea  of  his  pro- 
posed trip  to  England.  The  year  was  the  one 
thousandth  anniversary  of  the  death  of  King 
Alfred,  of  mighty  memory,  and  the  English 
people  proposed  to  have  a  great  commemora- 
tion of  the  event  at  Winchester.  Departing 
from  their  usual  insularity,  the  committee  in 
charge  had  invited  Dr.  Fiske,  a  foreigner,  to 
give  the  principal  address  on  the  occasion. 
He  felt  it  the  greatest  compliment  of  his  life. 
Much  of  the  time  of  my  brief  visit  was  taken 
up  in  his  discussion  of  the  delightful  summer 
before  him,  dwelling  for  a  time  in  his  new 
library,  and  in  July  sailing  for  England  for 
the  Winchester  celebration,  and  also  for  some 
courses  of  lectures  at  the  Universities  of  Ox- 


39 

ford  and  Cambridge.  The  alteration  at  the 
new  house  consumed  much  more  time  than 
was  anticipated,  so  it  was  not  until  the  second 
of  July  that  he  began  to  move  his  books  to 
the  new  room.  Soon  after  this  was  completed 
he  was  to  sail  for  England.  On  the  fourth  of 
July,  prostrated  by  the  murderous  heat,  he 
passed  away. 

To  those  so  blessed  as  to  be  of  the  inner 
circle  of  his  friends,  his  gifts  of  a  rare  and 
comprehensive  scholarship,  his  versatility,  his 
commanding  power  of  clear,  simple  narrative, 
are  not  more  kindly  and  lovingly  held  in  re- 
membrance than  his  never-failing  geniality 
and  heartiness  of  personal  good  will.  Such 
friends  will  count  their  intimacy  with  him  as 
one  of  life's  most  cherished  and  precious 
remembrances. 

For  his  work  as  historian,  as  evolutionist, 
and  as  theologian  in  its  best  sense,  he  ever 
aimed  to  promote  the  highest  ends.  He  was 
industrious  and  conscientious,  and  wrought 
"as  ever  in  his  great  Taskmaster's  eye."  For 
him,  therefore,  there  could  be  no  fear  in  facing 


4o 

the  great  unknown.  With  perfect  serenity  he 
could  lie  down  to  his  long,  his  last,  and  dream- 
less sleep.  His  experiences  had  been  an  illus- 
tration, and  his  life-work  a  revelation,  of  the 
ultimate  justice  of  the  laws  by  which  men  and 
worlds  are  governed,  and  in  these  laws  he 
could  calmly  trust. 

Few  men  could  more  confidently  repeat  the 
lines  of  Whittier: 

"  I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 

Their  fronded  palms  in  air, 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 

Beyond  His  love  and  care. 
And  so,  beside  the  silent  sea 

I  wait  the  muffled  oar. 
No  harm  from  Him  can  come  to  me 

On  ocean  or  on  shore." 


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